Various work machines for transmitting or translating power to do work are known in the prior art. Numerous designs of internal combustion engines have been proposed, developed and employed over the years to convert the combustion energy of fuel into rotational motion of a drive shaft. Since the early advent of the conventional reciprocating piston engine, research and technology have constantly been directed to ways to reduce engine size, weight, cost, and to improve the efficiency of the same. One step in the progress of such technology has been the development of the internal combustion rotary engine which basically employs a housing defining an internal compartment having a rotor element, the periphery of which slidingly engages the inner walls of the housing to form intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust chambers during rotational and orbital movement of the rotor in the housing.
My aforesaid patent discloses an improved four-cycle internal combustion engine of the eccentric piston type having a housing containing an inner body mounted eccentrically on an output shaft for non-rotational, orbital movement and provided with one or more movable wall members which form with the inner body and housing variable-volume intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust chambers during orbital movement of the inner body caused by combustion and expansion of fuel supplied to the engine.
It is also known to employ piston devices to supply motive power in engines of the external combustion, or power supply, type. Typical is the conventional steam engine, wherein a pressurized fluid from an external source is directed into the piston to impart motion to a drive member of the engine.